


Caprica

by velannacousland



Series: Help Me Love, Don't Fail Me Now [1]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Minor Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-25
Updated: 2013-06-25
Packaged: 2017-12-16 04:02:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/857551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/velannacousland/pseuds/velannacousland
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Scotty is injured on an away mission, and Uhura is there to help him heal</p>
            </blockquote>





	Caprica

**Author's Note:**

> So I guess this suddenly became a series, ha. I figure that each story will be about a different person set in the same universe, but I'll try to make it mostly Scotty/Uhura. Just because I love the ship so much.

It's your standard, away mission gone wrong scenario.

They were on a rainforest type planet called Caprica negotiating a treaty between the Federation and the natives. They were a bi-pedaled, red-haired cat species, that spoke logic like a Vulcan. The Enterprise has been in orbit around the planet for a month, studying the geology and in Uhura's case, studying the language. The natives of Caprica were very peaceful and accommodating. 

The crew of The Enterprise had assumed that since that was the only species they had observed on the planet, that it was the only species that inhabited Caprica. 

They were so very, very wrong.

It was during the feast to celebrate the signing of the treaty. The feast was held in an outside courtyard, with a circular concrete floor in the middle, and exotic, fruit bearing trees lined around the floor. There were streamers and lights hung in all of the trees, and the table with the food set in the middle. It was going well when a large group of bi-pedaled, tabby-haired cat species burst through and started firing weapons that looked suspiciously like the same ones they encountered with the Borg. Many people from both the peaceful natives and a handful of the Enterprise crew were killed.

Montgomery Scott attended the feast, and was badly injured when he was shot three times. Sometimes the screams keep him up at night. When it isn't the screams that keeps him up, he relives the whole thing in his dreams. Scotty doesn't much sleep anymore.

Scotty throws himself into his work, living for the feeling when he isn't hearing the cries of the dying. He doesn't eat much anymore, too sick with the fact that he almost died, and the empty stations of the crew who passed away that fateful day. 

Scotty works himself into exhaustion, passing out one day and nearly falling off of a catwalk. He wakes sometime later, into gamma shift. He is at that point between asleep and awake when he hears a melodic sound.  
When he is fully awake, he realizes that the sound is actually someone softly singing a melody he recognizes, but can't place.

It's one of the most beautiful things he's ever heard.

Rolling over on his side, Scotty scans the room, looking for the source. His eyes settle on Uhura, who is on her own biobed two cots away, laying on her back with one foot on the bed, and the other stretched out. She has her eyes closed, and it's then the Scotty places the tune: it's a lullaby his mom used to sing to him when he was a child.

Uhura opens her eyes slowly, moving her head to Scotty, almost like she knew she was being watched. "Hey, didn't mean to wake you." She says softly.

"What are you down here for?" He asks in a whisper.

Uhura turns on her side, facing Scotty. "I wasn't feeling good and had a high temperature. Turns out I have the flu. Dr. McCoy is keeping me here until I get better." She pauses. "How are you feeling? I saw you get brought in earlier. It looked bad, Scotty, real bad. You were white as a ghost."

The concern made Scotty smile a bit. "I'm feeling a little bit better. I just..haven't been sleeping well."

"How come?"

"You know that one away mission on Caprica, with the cat people?" Scotty asks. Uhura nods "I...can't get it out of my head." He answers, tears welling in his eyes. "I keep hearing them, Uhura, I keep seeing everybody dying in my dreams."

"Oh Scotty." Uhura says, worry evident in her voice. "You should have something. You shouldn't have to suffer alone." Scotty didn't reply, just squeezed his eyes tight.

"Thank you Uhura." Scotty says sincerely. "Can I ask you something?"

"Anything."

"Can you keep singing?" Uhura smiles at that and starts singing. It's the first night that Scotty doesn't hear screams and doesn't see people dying. He sleeps for 14 hours.

\---------------------------

Scotty gets discharged with orders to stay off duty for the next three days, for him to meet up with the ship's psychologist and the psychiatrist, and a stern lecture from Dr. McCoy to "come to me _before_ you pass out, damnit. I can't fix you if you're _dead_."

It's Dr. McCoy's way of expressing concern.

He goes to the mess hall one day for lunch, and finds Uhura sitting by herself, reading her PADD and eating a salad. He walks over and sits down across from her.

"Hey Uhura." Scotty smiles.

"Please, call me Nyota." She responds

"Alright, hello Nyota." Scotty corrects, "Whatcha reading?"

"Oh, some Romulan romance novel." Uhura replies "It's getting to the steamy parts."

"Never figured you for a romance novel type gal."

Uhura sighs "Anything to turn your brain off after shift."

"Aye." Scotty agrees.

"Are you doing any better?" Uhura inquires. Scotty nods.

"Yup. I meet with the head doctor tomorrow." Scotty replies.

Uhura smiles "Good. I'm glad. Hey, you wanna meet up at the rec room tomorrow, play a little pool? I've been wanting to play for a while, just haven't had someone to play it with."

"What, you can't get Spock to play?" 

"I can," Uhura says, waving her hand "but he takes forever to shoot. He does calculations in his head and analyzes angles and stuff."

"Ah, okay." Scotty states "Well, how about I comm you after my appointment, and we'll meet up then?"

"It's a date"

\---------------

That night he dreams of Caprica. He dreams that he is standing to one side of the circular floor, and can see the violent inhabitants burst through the trees. He can feel the bullets entering his chest and stomach. He clutches his stomach and his hands come away bloody. He falls to his knees and starts vomiting blood. He looks up and sees the aggressors shooting point blank in his crew mate's heads. Can hear the cries for their god, can hear the hosts praying to their god. He hears Kirk screaming into his communicator at the Enterprise for an immediate beam out.

Scotty's eyes shoot open. His stomach turns, and he barely makes it to the bathroom in time before he vomits. 

He sits next to the toilet with knees up, and the palms of his hands rubbing his eyes. This dream went exactly how the event went. He remembers the fear of dying, and praying that somehow James T. Kirk would find that luck of his and get them out. He did, but it had been a close call for Scotty.

He sits next to the toilet for the rest of the night, sobbing. He wants to erase the images, but can't.

\------------

He begs off work the next day, dragging himself to the psychiatrist appointment. He spends an hour in there, walks out with a diagnosis, some pills, and a paper that has coping mechanisms. He feels hollow and drained. He sends Uhura a message, stating that he isn't feeling good, sorry but can I have a rain check?

She doesn't reply, and instead shows up at his door. She projects a movie on his wall from her PADD, and they watch and don't talk at all.

\--------------

His therapist is a pretty nice person, and for the first time, Scotty unloads some of his pain. He cries a few times. He walks out feeling a little bit better and comms Uhura, asking if he can cash in his rain check.

A few hours later has them both in the rec room, with Kirk somehow inviting himself into their game. They spend the next few hours drinking replicated beer, listening to the Galaxy's Top 40 and telling stories of their pasts. Kirk is in the middle of telling the story about how he drove his dad's car off of a cliff and how he _totally_ told the cop off and ended up with his mom having to bail him out. 

Uhura laughs, and Scotty looks over and thinks _She should laugh more often. She's beautiful._

\---------------

Scotty and Uhura spend more and more time together off shift, in the rec room playing games or watching movies. Sometimes Kirk is there to join them, other times it's just them. Every day Scotty wakes up, goes to work, goes to the rec room to meet Uhura and occasionally Jim, and goes to bed. It's a routine every day, one Scotty is _happy_ with the way it is, and the world continues to turn until he gets the memo on his PADD.

The Enterprise is on route to a Federation planet where the climate controls on the dome which the inhabitants live is malfunctioning, causing the weather to fluctuate from snow to rain to desert like conditions. The brass at Starfleet want Scotty to help fix it.

He drops the PADD, falls to the floor, curls up and panics.

He doesn't know how long he is on the floor, shaking and crying. He comms Uhura, begging her to come to his room. She's there in less than a minute, still dressed in her red satin long sleeved pajamas. She sits cross legged on the floor, guiding his head onto her thigh. Scotty sobs into her pajama clad legs, saying "I don't know if I can do it Nyota. I am so scared."

"I know, honey." She murmurs, petting his head. "It's not going to be like Caprica. These people are friendly with the Federation. There's nothing that is going to hurt you."

"I know." Scotty says. "But I am so scared. What if something happens, what if the planet gets invaded? What if more people die? I don't know if I can live through another attack."

"Will it make you feel better if I go down with you?" Uhura whispers.

"Yeah." Scotty whispers back. "Yeah it would."

The next day, Scotty beams down to work on the climate control panel. The entire time, Uhura sits next to him, legs stretched out in front of her with her ankles crossed. She reads another Romulan novel on her PADD, with her phaser set to kill on her hip.

\-----------------------

The repairs take two days, and Uhura never leaves Scotty's side. They beam back, and the next day, Uhura and Spock break up. It was a civil separation, both agreeing that they just drifted apart. It still hurts Uhura, so Jim decrees that they are going to drink. Scotty whips up his own homemade scotch from a recipe he got from his grandfather. The three of them go down to engineering, find a spot in the corner, and start drinking. Uhura has tears in her eyes when Chekov comes down to ask Jim a question about next week's shift, and somehow Jim convinces Chekov to drink with them.

All of them get _spectacularly_ drunk. Uhura doesn't have tears in her eyes anymore from sadness, instead they are from laughing so hard. Scotty's leaned up against a wall, Uhura is slumped over on him, crying-laughing into his shoulder, Chekov is laying on the floor poetically waxing about Russia, and Jim is waving his glass of scotch around declaring that 'Operation: Get Chekov Drunk' is an outstanding success. 

"What on _God's green earth_ is going on here?" McCoy demands, still in scrubs with his hands on his hips.

"Doctor!" Chekov bellows "I do not think we are on Earth anymore. Uhura!" He looks at Uhura. "Are we on Earth? I do not know anymore. I think...we are in..." He squints "Space. Somewhere in space, yes." He slurs, accent thickening his words almost to the point of them being unrecognizable.

"Your level of deduction is _astounding_. Jim, do you realize you have a shift tomorrow morning? I'm not going to help you when you come to me begging to help with your hangover."

"Bonessssssss." Jim whines. "You wouldn't do that to me. You love me so much and you wouldn't hurt me. Would you, Bones? Bones? Bones? You don't want to see me in pain."

"I will if it teaches you not to get fucked up before alpha shift! I should just leave you to your suffering." McCoy growls, walking over and dragging him to his feet by one of his arms. 

"Ah, yes." Chekov replies with his pointer finger in the air "The doctor has come to collect his boyfriend." McCoy fixes him a glare that could kill, but Chekov doesn't see.

"Well guys," Jim declares. "I must be going on doc's orders. I shall see my brethren tomorrow."

Jim is dragged out of engineering by an irate McCoy, and Chekov is already passed out on the floor. 

"We can't leave him here alone." Uhura says, nuzzling Scotty's shoulder. Scotty, pets Uhura's hair and says 

"Aye, it would be wrong of us. Maybe we'll just wait here until he wakes up, then we can leave."

"That's a great idea." Uhura agrees. She closes her eyes and is soon asleep. Scotty takes this time to study Uhura. 

Scotty has always thought Uhura was beautiful, but up close she's even more breathtaking. He thinks that, just maybe he's falling in love, but is too drunk to tell. He leans his head back on the wall and falls asleep. The three of them sleep until the morning.

\------------------

The next few months go by, and Scotty keeps seeing his therapist. He's getting better and he dreams less of blood and screams and more of dark skinned legs and long hair. He even goes on a few away missions, though he still panics before the beam down. Scotty and Uhura spend more and more time together. One day was spent in the rec room, throwing popcorn at each other, speculating if the Captain was seeing anybody and who.

"I think it may be the doctor." Scotty says, throwing a piece of popcorn. Uhura tries to bat it away but misses, and instead it hits her nose. "Remember that one time we got drunk and Chekov said they were dating?"

"Yeah," Uhura agrees, throwing a piece at him. He smacks it away before it hits him. "But I don't think he is because you saw how pissed McCoy got. He called Chekov in the next day, hungover and all, and make him do a thorough immuno booster."

"But he could have done that to throw off suspicion, or to punish him for telling people." He aims and throws, but this time Uhura is able to bat it away. "They spend a lot of time together."

"Yeah, but" She says, throwing another piece and this time hitting him in his forehead. "Do you think it's healthy spending all that time together? I would go crazy. Kirk's like a squirrel with ADHD sometimes."

"I dunno, do you think two senior officers can be together all the time and still be in a relationship without wanting to kill each other?" Scotty asks. 

"Of course, I guess your personalities just have to match." Inside, Scotty is cheering, because now he has a chance.

\----------------------

Scotty has always thought of himself as a glass of cheap scotch: loud, fun to bring out at parties, and just a slight bit trashy. Uhura, he decides, is like a glass of expensive wine: elegant and classy. It surprises him sometimes that she hangs out with him because he feels like they're on different parts of the spectrum. Sometimes he thinks that he might stand a chance.

Uhura invites him over to her room one night. He arrives and she's in sweatpants and a white t-shirt. She has closed the window porthole and strung up blue lights all around her room. She's set up a disco ball on the floor, and it's currently turning projecting stars all over the room. "Look what I found when I was going through my stuff." Uhura states excitedly. "I used to use this thing all the time when I was a kid. It's better if you lay down."

She lays down on the floor and Scotty soon follows. He lays the opposite way of Uhura, but his head is right next to her. "What about the blue lights?" he asks.

"It adds ambiance." Uhura answers. They lay like that for a while. They talk about everything, how their week has gone, how Scotty's therapy sessions are going and if he's had any panic attacks. He likes laying here like this just talking, because he could listen to Uhura talk all day. It hits him right then with stars floating across the room that he is in love. Nyota is the most beautiful like this, with all her guard down and relaxed. 

She's an angel, he thinks, and I'm in heaven right here in this room.

"You know," Scotty whispers, "If you wanted to look at stars you could look out your porthole."

Uhura turns on her side, facing Scotty. "When you think of stars, what do you think of?"

"Balls of gas." Scotty replies.

"Exactly. We're so used to working in space that we don't see the beauty in it anymore. We see stars as balls of gas, their temperature and how old they are. We don't see them how a child sees them. We don't see how beautiful they really are. People used to look at the stars and wonder, or look at the stars and get lost in thought. We don't do that anymore. People don't see the beauty in things they take for granted."

"Or things they see everyday." 

Uhura smiles. "What about you?" She whispers.

"I see beauty everyday." She says, bringing his hand up and cups her face. She leans down and kisses him softly. "Everytime I look at you." She smiles and kisses him again, this time not stopping. 

He could definitely do this for the rest of his life.


End file.
